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An Architecture for Providing Security to Cloud Resources

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International Conference on Emerging Technology Trends (ICETT) 2011 Proceedings published by International Journal of Computer Applications® (IJCA) An Architecture for Providing Security to Cloud Resources Niranjana Padmanabhan Bijolin Edwin E Lecturer Lecturer CS Department IT Department S.N College of Engineering and Karunya University, India Technology, IndiaABSTRACT be audited due to the dynamic and fluid nature of virtualOne of the major challenges in Cloud computing is providing machines. Also, the co-location of multiple virtual machinessecurity to the cloud resources. In present paper, we make use of increases the attack surface and risk of virtual machine-to-virtualthe concept of virtualization to protect the cloud components machine compromise. The main focus of this paper is on theand the integrity of guest virtual machines. To guarantee controlled sharing of resources. Such sharing is not controlledincreased security to cloud resources, an architecture called by any formal policy in current hypervisor systems. This lack ofCloud Protection System (CPS) is proposed. CPS remains fully formality makes it difficult to reason about the effectiveness oftransparent to the cloud components and the guest virtual isolation between VMs. In the following sections we show howmachines since it is implemented on the base machine and CPS can leverage full virtualization to provide increasedmonitors the integrity of guest virtual machines. Also, we protection to actually deployed cloud systems such aspropose an architecture called HypeSec, which can be integrated Eucalyptus. Also, HypeSec architecture is integrated in thein the hypervisor Qemu, where it controls all inter-VM hypervisor Qemu, where it controls all inter-VM communicationcommunication according to formal security policies. The according to formal security policies.architecture CPS is fully implemented using Eucalyptus cloudenvironment, and Qemu as the hypervisor. The effectiveness of 2. RELATED WORKthe prototype is shown by testing it against the Sebek rootkit The survey on cloud computing presented in Armbrust et al.attack. (2009) have been the starting point of our work. There are many research papers on integrity checking mechanisms and intrusionGeneral Terms detection solutions. Those mechanisms can be successfullyCloud computing, virtual machine, security. applied to cloud computing as well. For example, the Filesystem Integrity Tools and Intrusion Detection Systems such asKeywords Tripwire (Kim and Spafford, 1994) and AIDE (AIDE team,Eucalyptus, Hypervisor, Qemu, virtualization. 2005) can be deployed in virtual machines. But they are subject to attacks possibly coming from a guest machine user who has1. INTRODUCTION turned the machine into a malicious one. In addition to this,Cloud computing is a consequence of economic, commercial, when an attacker finds out that the target machine is in a virtualcultural and technological conditions that have combined to environment, it may attempt to break out of the virtualcause a disruptive shift in information technology towards a environment through vulnerabilities (Secunia, 2009) in theservice-based economy. The underlying driver of this change is Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM). Most of the approachesthe commoditization of IT. Even though unresolved security and present today, leverage VMM isolation properties to secureprivacy issues are slowing down their adoption and success, VMs by leveraging various levels of virtual introspection.cloud nodes are increasingly popular. Since the cloud nodes are Virtual introspection (Jiang et al., 2007) is a process in whichexposed to third parties of services and interfaces, they are more the VMM monitors the state of a VM. SecVisor (Seshadri et al.,vulnerable to cyber attacks. The cloud in fact is the internet, 2007) Lares (Payne et al., 2008) and KVM-L4 (Peter et al.,with all the positives and negatives of it. Hence providing 2009), to name a few, leverage virtualization to monitor thesecurity to the cloud is a challenging task. Thus it is crucial to integrity of the guest kernel code from a privileged virtualidentify the possible threats that could occur and to establish machine or from the Virtual Machine Monitor, also known assecurity processes to protect the cloud from attacks. Virtual the hypervisor. Finally, the paper called Transparent security forMachines (VM’s) on the Internet are exposed to many kinds of cloud (Lombardi and Di Pietro, 2010) was studied to know whatinteractions that virtualization technology can help filtering are the security measures taken for protecting the integrity of thewhile assuring a higher degree of security. To provide virtual machines in the cloud. It can be seen that this paper andmonitoring of VMs, allowing easier management of the security our work share some similarity in terms of positioning of theof complex cluster, server farms, and cloud computing protection components. In Transparent security for cloud, theinfrastructures, virtualization can also be used as a security authors have considered the case in which security is provided incomponent. However, with respect to security, the virtualization an environment where there is only a single virtual machine thattechnologies create new potential concerns. It will be difficult to has gone malicious. Furthermore in Secure virtualization formaintain the consistency of security and ensure that records can cloud computing (Lombardi and Di Pietro, June 2010), again by 34

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International Conference on Emerging Technology Trends (ICETT) 2011 Proceedings published by International Journal of Computer Applications® (IJCA)the same authors considers the scenario where there are two users to focus on innovation. IaaS can be defined as the deliveryvirtual machines connected to a host and one of it has turned out of computer infrastructure (typically a platform virtualizationto be malicious. But the chance of a compromised virtual environment) as a service. IaaS leverages services, significantmachine that has become malicious affecting the next virtual technology and data center investments to deliver IT as a servicemachine (due to the dynamic and fluid nature of virtual to customers. Unlike traditional outsourcing, which requiresmachines) is vaguely explained. Our work shows that by complex, lengthy contract vehicles, extensive due diligence,providing an access control feature in the VMM, we can safe negotiations ad infinitum, IaaS is centered around a model ofguard a virtual machine from being infected by a malicious one. service delivery that provisions a predefined, standardized infrastructure specifically optimized for the customer’s3. BACKGROUND applications. IaaS customers essentially rent the resources as aCloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared fully outsourced service rather than purchasing data centerresources, software, and information are provided to computers space, servers, software, network equipment, etc. Usually, theand other devices on demand. In cloud computing, details are service is billed on a monthly basis, just like a utility companyabstracted from the users, who no longer have need for expertise bills customers. The customer is charged based on the amount ofin, or control over, the technology infrastructure "in the cloud" resources he has consumed. In our work, we have focusedthat supports them. Cloud computing typically involves over- mainly on the ‘lowest’’ computational layer (i.e. IaaS) becausethe-Internet provision of dynamically scalable and often we can more effectively provide a security foundation on top ofvirtualized resources. In general, cloud computing customers which more secure services can be offered. Out of the cloudrent usage from a third-party provider thus avoiding capital computing systems that exist today, most of them are proprietaryexpenditure. The cloud customers consume resources as a (even though APIs are open and well known) and they do notservice and pay only for the resources that they use. We can say allow integration with other systems or any kind ofthat cloud computing is a form of utility computing wherein the enhancements for research purpose. Because of this is reason,customers are charged according to the amount of resources that we have chosen Eucalyptus.they use. The utilization rates are improved by sharing"perishable and intangible" computing power among multiple 4. CLOUD PROTECTION SYSTEMtenants, as servers are not unnecessarily left idle (which can In the proposed Cloud Protection System (CPS), the guestreduce costs significantly while increasing the speed of virtual machine is monitored by the host to ensure that theapplication development). But a side-effect of this approach is integrity of the virtual machine is protected. We mainly monitorthat the overall computer usage rises dramatically, as customers the kernel code or data that would be targeted (or) affected bydo not have to engineer for peak load limits. In addition, it is attacks to provide protection to the virtual machines and thepossible to receive the same response times from centralized cloud infrastructure. Thus any modification to the kernel codeinfrastructure at other sites due to "increased high-speed and data is detected by monitoring the cloud components and thebandwidth”. The concepts such as virtualization, distributed kernel (of virtual machine). This monitoring guarantees that thecomputing and utility computing are applied within the cloud integrity of the virtual machine kernel and the cloud middlewareparadigm. Cloud services are available at different layers like have not been compromised. Now how we monitor the integritySoftware as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and of cloud components is by logging in and verifying theInfrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The traditional way of checksum of cloud libraries and executable files periodically.software distribution, wherein the software is purchased for and The high level description of CPS is shown in Figure 1. Theinstalled on personal computers, is sometimes referred to as monitoring data flows are depicted as continuous lines in greenSoftware-as-a-Product. Software-as-a-Service is a term given to color where as the dangerous data flows are shown as dashedthe software distribution model in which the applications are lines (red). All the CPS modules- the Interceptor, Warninghosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to Recorder, Warning Queue and the Evaluator are located on thecustomers over a network, typically the Internet. As the base machine (host). The Interceptor component notices anyunderlying technologies that support web services and service- suspicious guest activities like for example, system_calloriented architecture (SOA) mature and new developmental invocation and it is recorded by the Warning Recorder into theapproaches become popular, SaaS is becoming an increasingly Warning Queue (WQ). Then the threat will be evaluated by theprevalent delivery model. SaaS is also often associated with a Evaluator component. Our protection system called CPS ispay-as-you-go subscription licensing model. The next cloud implemented over Eucalyptus cloud environment. Eucalyptusservice known as the Platform-as-a-Service allows us to include (Nurmi etal.,2009) consists of: a Node Controller (NC) thatplatforms for building and running custom web-based controls the execution, inspection, and termination of VMapplication. It is an outgrowth of the SaaS application delivery instances on the host where it runs; a Cluster Controller (CC)model. We can say that the PaaS model makes all of the that gathers information about VM and schedules VM executionfacilities required to support the complete life cycle of building on specific node controllers; further, it manages virtual instanceand delivering web applications and services entirely available networks; a Storage Controller (SC)—Walrus—that is, a storagefrom the Internet, without any software downloads or service providing a mechanism for storing an accessing VMinstallation for developers, IT managers, or end users. In the images and user data; a Cloud Controller (CLC), the webIaaS model, the developers can/may create a specific operating services entry point for users and administrators that make highsystem instance with home grown applications running. Unlike level scheduling decisions. The NC runs on every node hostingthis model, PaaS developers are concerned only with web based VM instances. The NC activity and integrity is mainlydevelopment and generally do not care what operating system is monitored, as it is the key component for our cloudused. Rather than complex infrastructure, PaaS services allow implementation. 35

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International Conference on Emerging Technology Trends (ICETT) 2011 Proceedings published by International Journal of Computer Applications® (IJCA) Fig 1: Cloud Protection SystemNow, if any dangerous alteration in the guest VM is detected, This architecture named HypeSec can have an Access ControlCPS can take actions like shutting down the VM or restarting a Module (ACM) incorporated with the Qemu hypervisor whichclean image. An attack can be implemented by inserting a will exercise access control between VMs, isolation of virtualrootkit in the guest VM. For instance we can insert Sebek, which resources, resource control etc. The ACM authorizes access ofis a kernel module that hides its presence and intercepts file VMs to resources based on certain policy rules attached to VMs.system and network activity. It alters the syscall table and One policy can be like administrators must ensure that certainchanges the execution flow to execute any malicious code. CPS VMs (and their supported workload types) cannot run on thecan detect both the alteration of the syscall table and the change same hypervisor system at the same time. Based on suchin the checksum of kernel files on virtual storage. Now if there policies, the ACM can decide on whether to alloware many virtual machines installed in a single system and one communication among virtual machines or not. This featurevirtual machine has gone malicious, then it will affect the enhances the security provided by the CPS.remaining virtual machines in no time. That is, the co-locationof multiple virtual machines increases the attack surface and risk 5. ATTACK IMPLEMENTATIONof virtual machine-to-virtual machine compromise. Hence along First we checked how our protection system reacted by making awith CPS, we can include a security feature in the hypervisor single virtual machine malicious. We did so by inserting aQemu to provide better protection. We kept the name as module inside the kernel of the virtual machine which altered itsHypeSec since we add the security feature in the hypervisor. syscall table and changed the execution flow so as to execute theThe block diagram of HypeSec is depicted in Figure 2. malicious code. This alteration was identified by the CPS components at the base system by the change in the value of checksum generated after the syscall table was altered. After detecting the alteration, the virtual machine was made to be powered off. When this was found successful, we next made some additions to the Qemu code so that the Qemu hypervisor will exercise some access control method when there is more than one virtual machine on the base system and one among those is compromised. That is, once it is found out that a virtual machine is malicious, the Qemu hypervisor will change the Fig 2: Block diagram of HypeSec access rights of the compromised virtual machine in such a way that it cannot communicate with the other VMs thus avoiding 36